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The Rebirth of the Hot Jazz Violin

By

Nat Hentoff

Updated Feb. 21, 2006 12:01 a.m. ET

Until I heard the now legendary Stuff Smith (1909-76), I had no idea that a jazz violinist could more than hold his own in a powerfully swinging jazz combo's front line. Smith, who had played with Jelly Roll Morton, recorded with Nat "King" Cole and Dizzy Gillespie, and toured with Norman Granz's dueling horn virtuosi, told jazz historian Stanley Dance: "You can swing more on a violin than on any instrument ever made. You've got all those octaves on the violin. You can slur like a trombone, play staccato like a trumpet, or moan like a tenor." As Jo Jones with the Count Basie band put it: "Stuff...